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Good news, bad news: NIST ATP awards doled out for last time |
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Sep 28, 2007 at 01:18 PM |
The latest set of awards for the US National Institute of Science and Technology's Advanced Technology Program (ATP) will also be the contest's last.
After years of offering financial support to companies involved in "high-risk industrial research projects," and a lengthy list of success stories, ATP was abolished under the provisions of the ironically titled America Competes Act (which does permit continued support for projects already under way, including the new ones). So the news of who won the FY2007 awards---which will total close to $139 million if all the projects run through to completion---leaves a bittersweet taste.
A review of the 69 companies (and one nonprofit) who received awards shows the majority (48) come from the ranks of small business, including many start-ups and early-stage outfits. Many of these little fish work with much bigger joint-venture-partner fish, including General Electric, Boeing, General Motors, and Air Products. The projects' durations run from two to five years, while the projected ATP funding amounts range from $1.36 million (awarded to Eikos for its printable electronic nanotube inks and concentrates work) to $8.79 million (given to BioNanomatrix for development of genomic sequencing technology).
A perusal of the last-but-not-least ATP-winning projects reveals a healthy amount of newcomers and established firms working on semiconductor manufacturing and devices, thin-film photovoltaics, solid-state lighting (LEDs), flexible/printed electronics, carbon nanotubes, and nanometrology.
On the chipmaking side, EHD Technology Group of Duarte, CA (not far up the road from me in the L.A. area), will work on development of "an electrostatic nanodroplet generation and control [electrohydrodynamic] process that optimizes cleaning efficiencies on advanced semiconductor wafers." Also on the fab front, Gainesville, FL-based Sinmat scored close to $2.57 million over three years to work on "a novel CMP process...that offers better control in the processing of copper/ultra-low-k interconnects in ICs."
Thin-film PV winners include Konarka (Lowell. MA) for its "transparent, flexible solar modules based on bulk-heterojunction organic photovoltaic technology" and Liquidia (Morrisville, NC) for "nanomolding techniques" used to "develop a high-volume manufacturing process for fabricating high-efficiency, cost-effective thin-film solar cells."
One of the light-emitting diode projects will be led by Crystal IS of Green Island, NY, which will get nearly $4.4 million over three years to perfect "novel materials, processing techniques and designs to produce high-efficiency LEDs that operate in the deep [<320 nm] ultraviolet." Trying to print nano-enabled solid-state lighting structures on flexible materials, Watertown, MA-based QD Vision will use its $3.4 million to "demonstrate an environmentally friendly nanocrystal LED technology for white-light-emitting devices with high power efficiency and tunable color, using solution processing on flexible substrates."
A familiar name from the semiconductor/microelectronics equipment business---Veeco---won one of the largest awards (over $5.5 million) to "develop a platform based on AFM and ultrasonic microscopy to enable high-speed, nondestructive subsurface measurements of three-dimensional nanostructures...and nanomaterials." Up-and-coming advanced process control company Xradia will use its $2.75 million over the next two years to continue innovating its "x-ray scatterometer for CD metrology" that could "enable high-throughput" measurements in 32 nm and smaller chipmaking processes.
Congratulations to the latest ATP winners, but also a moment of silence for the passing of one of the U.S. federal government's most effective technology-incubation programs.
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